


In My Veins Flows Chaos, But I Could Do Without It Being This Obvious

by GothMoth



Series: May's Phantastical Callings [20]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Ectobiology, Gen, Headcanon, Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-05-28 16:57:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19398442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothMoth/pseuds/GothMoth
Summary: The science of a glow bug





	In My Veins Flows Chaos, But I Could Do Without It Being This Obvious

This is one of those moments where Danny really really should have been paying attention in class, as he looks between the ectoplasma ball and his shocked teacher; before looking around the classroom and chuckling, “well this is awkward”. 

—half an hour ago—

Mr. Trent shakes his head at his most frustrating student, really the most frustrating student to every teacher. Watching as the boy’s off reading some strange book he's sure isn’t from the library or related to science. The kid’s smart, he could probably ace every class, if he cared. 

But today that kid would participate, even a little, as the Fenton parents finally finished the little project he commissioned from them. Sure, it was pretty well known the Fenton boy didn’t care for ghost stuff and didn’t agree with his parents on a lot of things. But Mr. Trent’s sure everyone will at least get some interest out of this and with how the Fenton home is, Fenton will have the best reaction. 

Mr. Trent pats on the top of the box for, what he’s decided to call, the ectoplasma ball. He doesn’t even really want to know what horrid name the Fenton’s had come up with for it. “Now students, since this is Amity, everyone and their mother have ectoplasmic contamination. Of course, we now know this isn’t really something to fret about in smaller quantities”, he continues speaking as he unboxes the sphere, “now, I’d assume you all are well aware of novelty plasma balls. Well, it turns out hyper-concentrated pure ectoplasm contained inside glass filled with a selection of gases has a similar effect”. 

Mr. Trent won’t claim to be surprised that most of the class is paying acute attention now, nearly everyone always did when anything had to do with ghosts. Turning on the device, Mr. Trent traces his fingers over it; causing the neon green sphere inside a glass one to shoot out green ectoplasm like webbing, to where his fingers are touching it. Half the class looks downright giddy, while the other half tries to seem unimpressed; and then there’s Fenton, who doesn’t even look like he’s noticed.

Pulling his fingers away and showing how they’re glowing faintly green now, as he speaks, “unlike the electricity in regular plasma balls, this ectoplasm concentrate is only attracted to ectoplasm, no matter how small. So it pulls all the little flakes of generalised free-floating ectoplasm in a person to whatever part of that person contacts the sphere. Making that persons little bit of ectoplasm visible and glowing for a few hours”. Tapping on his fingertips, “the more you have the brighter it will glow, if you have enough the ectoplasm might just pile up. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people’s entire hands can light up”. And that reaction is exactly what he expects from Fenton. The kid lives surrounded by ecto everything, after all, no way he doesn’t have the highest ectoplasmic contamination in school. 

Pointing at Star as she raises her hand, “what if a ghost touched it? Would they just light up all over?”. Mr. Trent wiggles his hand back and forth in the air, “the ectoplasm in ghosts isn’t generalised or free-floating. Meaning it wouldn’t get pulled or collected at all. Instead, this would just make the ectoplasm inside them glow extremely brightly wherever it is. Many ghosts have ectoplasm covering every bit of their body so they would indeed just glow green all over, but some only have their ectoplasm in specific areas. Meaning only those areas would light up or would light up more than the rest of them. Ghosts can also have ectoplasm of different colours, so they might not even glow entirely green, but also purple or blue or red in spots”. Now of course Mr. Trent wasn’t crazy enough to flat-out drag in a ghost to prove this. 

Mr. Tent smiles at the eager faces and decides to hand it around to a few people, slightly curious to see if Fenton even noticed the change in classroom norm. After about six people have rubbed their fingers or hands all over it, some having enough to actually leave green light tracers in the air with their fingertips. Quite a few of the students start pointing at Fenton and mouthing, “do him, do him”. Mr. Tent won’t claim to be surprised everyone’s officially curious what his reaction will be, there’s not a soul in Amity that would even doubt he had the strongest case of ectocontamination. Especially with all weird things he does and that happen to him. He’s heard more than a few rumours of the boy disappearing or appearing randomly, unusual shows of strength, and getting to impossible places. Heck, no one even knows how he gets to school anymore, no way he was walking halfway across town every day.

Fenton puts down his book as Mr. Trent steps in front of him, plopping the ectoplasma ball right into his hands as soon as they’re free. Mr. Trent would feel bad about startling the jumpy paranoid boy but he wouldn’t be startled if he’d been paying even a slight amount of attention. Mr. Trent would also almost be impressed at this level of tuning out your surroundings if he didn’t just notice the earbuds sneakily wrapped behind his ears, with the cord clearly running down the back of his shirt. 

But he doesn’t exactly get to dwell on that, as all of Fenton’s skin glows green faintly, while his veins glow green almost painfully bright; and his chest looks like someone just shoved a blue sun in there. 

—Return to Danny present—

“Well, this is awkward”. 

Danny can easily see the borderline absurd level of glowing from all his arms veining out of the corner of his eyes, flicking his eyes over to the board to read about this “ectoplasma ball” and mentally facepalming. At least it won’t hurt him but this is bad, “uh” is all Danny can think to say. 

Flicking his eyes back down to the sphere in his palms, the ectoplasm in it is practically all splashed up against where he’s touching it, and he can feel the raw energy in it. This stuff is pure, very pure and very concentrated indeed; which really makes him want to consume it. Pure highly concentrate raw ectoplasm was horrendously delicious and a major power boost. His core would lap it up hungrily. Just touching it like this, even with the barrier, he could feel the prickling power and it leeching into him. 

Pretty well shoving it back to the teacher before he does something really stupid and after hearing what sounds like lightning crackling in his hair. 

The entire class gets pulled out of their shocked stupor at the sight of his hair frizzing out and little extremely bright green electrical arches zapping between the strands of his hair. Mr. Trent has got no clue what to say, he was expecting a big reaction but nothing like this. It was like this kid was literally flowing pure ectoplasm through all his veins, to the degree where it seeped into all of his skin. Flicking his eyes from Fenton’s toxic glowing green ones to his chest, the colour properly clicking into Mr. Trent’s head. Blue ectoplasm wasn’t even possible in ectocontamination and his hair was a weird reaction too, like he’d actually absorbed in energy and was now overflowing with it.

One of the students slowly gets up and clicks off the lights, and everyone pretty well gasps as the glow from Fenton easily lights up the whole room. The room’s silent enough for everyone to hear him mutter, “um... So I guess I’m probably going to need to give an explanation for this?”. 

Danny runs his hand through his hair, which results in lots of rather loud zapping sounds, as his teacher nods slack-jawed. Pointing his finger at the teacher and at a couple, more loose-lipped, classmates, “keep this in school, I’d rather not deal with my parents wanting to see and poke at me for hours on end”. Danny’s a little surprised they all nod readily, well till Kwan speaks up, “Fenton dude, no one really wants them to go off about ghosts to anyone. No one wants anyone to seem more ghostly or whatever to them, especially not the guy who has to live with ‘em”. 

Danny moves his hand back down to his desk, noticing the massive light tracers he’s leaving. Waving his hand around a bit, “okay, that’s cool”. Shaking his head before turning his attention back to the class, “to say I am, contaminated, might be a bit of an understatement”. Everyone nods at him, but Mr. Trent points at his chest. Looking down at himself, Danny realises his core is basically on full display as his teacher talks, “ectocontamination, it’s only green. So clearly, that’s more than just an understatement”. 

Danny can’t help but pat a bit affectionately at his chest, he’s pretty well screwed here but maybe he could weasel his way out of a full reveal. Chuckling awkwardly, “uh, yeah. You don’t say. It’s a bit weird, my core being visible like this”. Mr. Trent squints at him, “humans don’t, exactly, have those”. Danny’s glad this teacher is one that doesn’t utterly hate him, not to mention he’s open to some plain weird ideas. Patting at his chest again, “you try getting fried by the entire ghost zone and not wind up with one”. Rubbing his neck and looking around as a bunch of people gasp and whisper amongst each other, “I, uh, a portal, ghost portal, opened up on me”. 

Shrugging a bit as multiple people cringe, Star commenting, “that sounds insanely painful Danny. How’d that not kill you?”. 

“Dumb luck, with a side of luck. My core forming, sort of, protected me. But, uh, it being there, rather means, my ectocontamination can’t actually, like, dissipate”, Mr. Trent can’t help but find that horrendously worrying. Sure, he’s glad this saved his student, but everyone was constantly ectocontaminated in Amity because of the ever-present ectoplasm from ghosts and ecto everything replenishing the ectoplasm that dissipated out of people. So everyone’s levels fluctuated based on how much ghost related stuff or ghosts they came into contact with. Or how much time they spent where there was high levels of or recent ghost activity. If Fenton couldn’t dissipate any of this then, “so, you, you just keep getting worse? Absorbing more and more? How could that possibly not be harmful?”. Waving his hand over Fenton’s brightly glowing from, if he focused he could swear he could actually see the ectoplasm flowing or pulsing in his veins, “this, this is already beyond what’s safe. Drastically so”. 

Obviously, Fenton’s aware of that as he rubs his neck, “yeah, sort of. This is kind of why my family can’t know. They’ll try to decontaminate me. See, having it, at any level, isn’t what’s bad for me. It’s not having it that would be, well, bad. My core, it feeds off of, consumes, all the free-floating ectoplasm around”. Mr. Trent finds that does make sense, a core needs to be supported, that’s half the reason ghosts stayed in the ghost zone. So their cores and ectoplasm could feed off of and be supported by the free-floating ectoplasm there. But if Fenton just had a core to feed then maybe Amity’s freakishly high levels of free-floating ectoplasm was enough for him. But that gets Mr. Trent to notice something else strange, Fenton’s ectoplasm should have pooled. The entirety of his arms and probably chest, should just be lit up solidly green. Instead, all his ectoplasm stayed in place, well, ok, that wasn’t quite true. Fenton’s hands and forearms were pretty well solidly green but his veins still stood out vibrantly. Which could only mean, “your ectoplasm, most of it isn’t generalised. It’s raw, sentient. Like a ghosts unique kind”.

A couple of his classmates' nod and Danny was really hoping he didn’t get called out on that. But if he doesn’t give an explanation they’re going to make assumptions and possibly connections, “um, yeah. My core creates it. It um, flows alongside my blood. Hence the veins”. Danny’s almost worried by how curious his teacher looks now, and pretty well the entire class has just straight up moved their desks around him. He’s pretty used to being the town freak but this was like being a literal freak show. Which he kind of was but even if he did have pride in that now, he can’t say he likes being gawked at by his entire class. 

His teacher mutters, “how is that even sustainable?”, as he walks up to the board and starts drawing. Danny’s thankful for the eyes being taken off him even if he’s still clearly the focus of everyone’s attention. As the teacher draws a little cartoon ghost and squiggles coming out of it, tapping on the board, “ghosts having raw and sentient ectoplasm is what causes them to ectocontaminate things, leeching out ectoenergy that becomes free-floating ectoplasm. Like how humans shed skin, do you, do you do this too? Because, with what you’re saying, you should”.

Danny winces a bit, knowing full well that well over half the free-floating ectoplasm was from him. Though for him it was more accurate to call the free-floating ectoplasm, that came from him anyway, latent ectoplasm. Since he could tap into it and use it to create things or heal faster. Nodding awkwardly at his teacher, “yeah, I’m sort of a walking contaminant. But, um, not nearly as bad as a ghost. I’ve got bones, organs, skin, the works; to contain it. That's why it’s sustainable”.

“So what? You self-contaminate and feed off of that and the free-floating ectoplasm?”, Danny nods at Star, it’s damn weird and is kind of like auto-cannibalism, but it’s not that different from someone chewing on and eating their own skin. Which a large portion of people did, but just didn’t really think about how kind of weird it was. “People consume bits of their own skin or fingernails or even hair, consuming my own expunged ectoenergy is just a bit more, Amity”, a couple look grossed out but pretty well everyone seems to agree with his logic. 

Mr. Trent taps his chin, it does make sense. Weird but reasonable. Though that means Fenton is still contaminating things and probably people actually, “well, since you’re actually a constant in Amity your ectoenergies free-floating ectoplasm should be all over the place. Heck, most townsfolk have to be carrying some from you. Not only that but a ghost having their ectoenergies free-floating ectoplasm coating everything is what establishes a lair. So?”. Mr. Trent’s too curious to feel bad about prying, even if Fenton winces a bit. Besides, Fenton’s just a really weird human, a really ghostly one but still. Better to have him lay claim to the, really ghostly, town than some ghost. Sure, there was Phantom but he wasn’t always here, though how he’d show up here so quickly and then vanish was a complete mystery. Most just assumed he had a sense for when danger happened here. 

Fenton rubs his neck, “I prefer not to think about it that way, kind of creepy. But yeah, I’m sort of in everyone and thing”, pretty well everyone could see him cringing as he talked. Fenton straightens out some, “and Amity’s my home. That’s all a lair is, just add in ectoplasm markings and stuff”. Mr. Trent tilts his head a bit, that’s oversimplifying it a lot. But he did still get his answer, technically. Amity was indeed a lair by ghost standards, it just had to be extra weird, like always, and have a human for a keeper. Even more odd that he was just a kid and yet odder that Fenton didn’t try to protect his lair. Well, not being a ghost likely means he doesn’t have ghost nature, which is what makes them all so protective of their places. Maybe that’s why Phantom was around, protecting the lair of someone who couldn’t, or just didn’t, protect it themselves? It would be something the heroic ghost would do. 

Jesse Reinbache, one of the geeks, apparently agrees with Mr. Trent’s line of thought, “shouldn’t you, like, protect your lair or whatever then? It’s not like you’re not capable of it”. 

Danny is not liking where this is going but the kid’s fully right, Danny already is protecting the place. He’s just trying to avoid them knowing that, “I’m sixteen, give me a break. Besides, if my parents even suspected I was fighting or doing anything with or related to ghosts, I would never hear the end of it”. Sighing a bit as they all look rather unimpressed even if most nod and he can hear a few mutter about how “he’s got a point there”. Getting a bit startled as his teacher speaks up again, “well what about Phantom? It’s he basically picking up your slack?”. Ok, now Danny just feels slightly insulted. And the class is judging him, highly unimpressed, again. Everyone loves Phantom, which he does like, but now they’re all thinking he’s making a hassle for Phantom. Sighing a bit defeatedly, he had to salvage this otherwise this was definitely not staying in school at all, “Phantom doesn’t do what he does alone. Partners you could say. But like seriously, my parents hate him. So hush”. 

Danny gives himself a mental pat on the back as everyone just seems to accept that. Mr. Trent nods, “that actually explains a lot. Lair keepers can manipulate their lairs so you’re probably the one who covers up Phantom’s ectosignature, probably even making portals for him to get in and out. Not to mention how he gets Fenton tech and always seems to know what it does”. Danny’s not sure whether to roll with this or beg him to shut up. Though he damn well wishes he could make damn portals. 

Danny groans as everyone expectedly looks at him for a demonstration, “fine”. Danny covers up his eyes in a show of seeming embarrassed, though he’s really aiming to keep them from noticing his eyes glowing even more; as he swirls his fingers to severely condense his latent ectoplasm in the air into an easily visible spherical ectolight. 

Mr. Trent judges by the slight smirk on Fenton’s face, as everyone passes around the ectolight, that he’s actually a bit proud of what he can do. Which he absolutely should be, especially if he’s a little hero or sidekick himself. No wonder Fenton was never around at the exact same time as Phantom, yet always showed up nearby. They couldn’t actually risk being seen together and heck, Fenton could probably teleport himself and/or Phantom anywhere in town by making portals. Mr. Trent goes wide-eyed as something hits him, talking almost quietly at Fenton, “that’s why you run off all the time. To help or get Phantom”. Mr. Trent’s not sure why that makes Fenton glare at the ectoplasma ball before responding, “I can, um, tell if a ghost shows up in town. When, where, who...”. Multiple people mutter, “so that’s why Phantom seems to just always know, he’s got a damn informant”. This makes complete sense to Mr. Trent, of course, he could tell if someone entered his lair, like having a convenient security system. 

Danny is straight up glad that his teacher has apparently run out of questions and, way too close to home, ideas. Watching as everyone goes after the etcoplasma ball again, he’ll admit it is kind of cool but he kind of hates the thing right now. 

Blinking down at his brightly glowing veins after the bell rings before walking up to his teacher, “so, um, how long does this last?”. While he appreciates the energy boost, way better than any coffee or crappy energy drink, he’d like to not look like a damn glow bug with glow sticks for veins. Mr. Trent chuckles, “if you’d been paying attention you’d know. Normally I wouldn’t tell you as punishment but that would be pretty unfair and mean here”, smiling warmly, “it should only last three hours at most but that’s tested on regular, core and raw ectoplasm free, people”. Danny shrugs, he’s a bit too used to uncertainties, “well it’s just lunch now so here's hoping”. At least his teacher has the decency to look rather apologetic, though Danny can’t really blame the guy; it’s not like he knew. 

Danny plops down with his tray, trying to ignore all the staring while he startles the crap out his friends, “dude! Oh man, you look like someone turned on every single light inside you. How’d you explain this?”. Sam pokes at his veining, “kind of cyber goth though”. 

Danny rolls his eyes, “me having a core is public knowledge now, Mr. Trent’s decided Amity’s my lair, and I’m Phantom’s sidekick. But hey! Managed to get everyone to agree to keeping this a Casper high secret. So I’m not utterly fucked, in regards to my parents anyway”. Though he’ll be amazed if his parents don’t hear about this eventually, he just needed some time to prepare for that. Tucker points a fry at him, “it is your lair though, you’re just fucking weird about it”.

“I’m weird about every, Tuck”. 

Danny’s a bit surprised no one peppered him with questions too much about, well, everything; as the day goes on. But then again, pretty well everyone had heard the answers he’d given out in class, by the end of lunch. Thee teachers are all just trying to play it off like it’s normal now, which he's both thankful for and weirded out by. Though, staring down at his veins in eight just makes him plain happy that the shit is finally fully fading away. At this point, all he had left was dimly glowing green veining, and the blue glow from his chest wasn’t viewable through his clothing anymore; well, unless the lights were turned off. 

But heading out of class, he knows damn well he’s not going home till it’s completely worn off. 

Valerie gives him an excuse though, as she practically jumps on him as soon as he’s alone in the schoolyard. His friends having to go home because of family crap or whatever. “Alright, so I know we’re not the closest but what the hell Danny. I’ve heard so many downright strange rumours today and you damn well bet I saw you being a freaking glow stick. So just what?”, Valerie plops down and stares incredulously at his chest. Which Danny pats in response, “yeah the core one’s true. But if I had it my way no one would know. My life’s weird enough without the school being freaky towards me”, sighing a bit, “and yes I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. But like, “I have what’s functionally a ghostly supernova in my chest”, is just not something you tell people”. Valerie nods and sighs, clearly understanding but also glad for the apology, “I’m more concerned by the lair rumour actually, can’t really claim to be surprised that your bodies messed up. Your parents aren’t exactly safe”. 

“Point, but, um, that one’s sort of true too. I just don’t, like, think of it that way. Amity’s just my home, even if my ecto crap is all over everything”, which absolutely was useful to Danny and gave him a major advantage over any ghostly foes; it was just still too weird to view his town as his ghostly lair. 

“Yeah well, it’s got to be affecting the town. Outside of just contaminating everything. Even if you don’t mean to, you’re probably manipulating or changing things”, Danny damn well knew he was, a little anyway. The colour palette of Amity was off for a reason, especially at night. And he did have a bad habit of changing the colour of things in response to his mood.

“Not my fault, I can’t change this. Also can’t say I really want to, this is my normal”, Danny’s not really impressed but he pats his chest affectionately and makes sure that affections is palpable. Valerie eyes him for a bit before sighing, “I know and I get it, I do. It’s just sort of hard to be ok with. Sure, I’d rather you over some ghost, but I’d rather Amity be less ghostly altogether”. Danny can’t help but snort at that, ghostly was pretty well what defined Amity now, “like that’s ever going to happen. Ghosts are a part of Amity, Amity’s normal. The veins of Amity run with human life and ghost ectoplasm, like me, and separating them really would never end well”. Valerie’s sigh makes it pretty obvious that she knows that, even if she doesn’t like it. 

Valerie nods, “wishful thinking I guess, but that’s got to feel weird, for you. Having both, having a core, being a halfa”.

Danny coughs and blinks a bunch before composing himself, while Valerie smirks, “I’m not an idiot, Phantom. Though mad props for the impressive lying skills you got. Now we both know each other’s secret identities”. Blinking at her some more, “yeah, should have seen that coming. Um, still friends though?”. 

“Duh, I can’t blame you for lying or hiding. I did the same damn thing. But how did this even happen to you? The portal opening on you rumour is a little bit out there”, Danny can tell she’s not impressed that he’s laughing at that. Running a hand through his hair and smirking a bit, “that’s the truth. You’re very right on my parents not being safe. Built a portal, put the on button on the inside and I accidentally touched it. Then blam! Ghost zone to the face, well whole body really but still”. Valerie gapes at him a bit, “wow, that is actually kind of sad. In the pathetic kind of way. Your parents are hazards”. 

Danny nods, before checking under his shirt for glow, “you have no idea. But I’m alright with the end result, like you with huntress stuff. And thank fuck this shits gone now”. She snickers as the two get up, “they’re gonna know about this incident eventually, you know. Whole towns gonna”. Danny nods with a bit of a frown, prompting Valerie to speak up again, “well, they might just listen to a fellow hunter better than you. So consider that an option, it’s not like they know I’m just a teenager”. Danny blinks and smiles slowly, “I think I just might take you up on that. See how things play out, I’ve never been much of a planner”.

“No, you’re just an idiot. An idiot with a fucking mess in your veins”, Danny just gives her a shit-eating grin as they head off. 

**End.**


End file.
